Organic Agriculture: Farmers are the finest backbone for the country. Could you picture your existence without farmers? How are we going to obtain enough food in bulk to feed the entire world? Farmers are experimenting with new strategies to produce more harvests in less time. Are pesticide-sprayed crops energetic or successful in terms of human health? Is there any way to cultivate crops that do not need the use of fertilisers and pesticides?

Yes, organic agriculture is the only alternative to conventional crop development. Organic agriculture seeks to improve human well-being while minimising harm to the environment, which is the cornerstone of human life. The relatively high success of organic farming in some countries can be attributed to increased awareness of the health problems caused by consuming contaminated food products, the negative effects of environmental degradation, and appropriate support from governments and organisations such as the European Union and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).

What is Agriculture?

Agriculture is a man-made activity. It involves the rearing of animals, the growing of plants and other life forms to satisfy human needs and wants through the use of scientific or natural methods and principles.

Fig: Agriculture

What is Organic Agriculture?

Organic agriculture is a kind of diversified agriculture wherein crops and livestock are managed through the use of integrated technologies with a preference to depend on resources available either at the farm or locally. Or it may be defined as ‘an integrated farming system that strives for sustainability, the enhancement of soil fertility and biological diversity while, with rare exceptions, prohibiting synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, synthetic fertilisers, genetically modified organisms, and growth hormones.’

Fig: Organic Agriculture

Types of Organic Agriculture

Organic Agriculture is basically of two types:
1. Pure Organic Agriculture: It involves avoiding all artificial chemicals. Every fertiliser and pesticide used is derived from entirely natural sources such as blood meal or bone meal.

Fig: Pure Organic Agriculture

2. Integrated Organic Agriculture: It involves integrating techniques aimed at achieving ecological requirements and economic demands, such as integrated pest management and nutrients management.

Fig: Integrated Organic Agriculture

Aims of Organic Agriculture

Organic agriculture is a holistic way of farming and besides the production of goods of high quality. It primarily aims at the conservation of natural resources like soil, water, climate, biodiversity, non-renewable energy, etc., for sustainable productivity in agriculture.
1. Sustainability of Natural Resources: Sustainability is used in a wider sense to encompass not just the conservation of non-renewable resources (soil, water, minerals, energy, biodiversity) but also issues of environmental and social sustainability. The very basic approach to organic agriculture are as follows:
a. Improve and maintain the natural landscape and agro-ecosystem.
b. Avoid overexploitation and pollution of natural resources.
c. Minimize consumption of non-renewable energy sources.
d. Maintain and improve soil health by stimulating the activity of soil organisms with organic manures and avoid harming them with pesticides.
e. Obtain optimum economic returns within a safe, secure and healthy working environment.
f. Acknowledge the virtues of indigenous knowledge and traditional farming systems (ITKs).
2. Minimizing Cost of Cultivation: Organic Agriculture is very important for resource-poor farmers, especially for those who are operating in high risk-prone areas of dryland and rainfed agriculture.
3. Healthy Food: Healthy food means food that is from harmful chemicals and heavy elements, tasteful and nutritious. Organic agriculture has all feasible methods that are used to minimize pollution of not only farm products but also of the surrounding environment, including air, soil and water.
4. Augmentation of Profits: Organically produced foods have a great demand in export markets, especially those of European and North American countries, and they fetch a sizable premium, as compared to conventionally grown farm products. In the domestic sector, demand for organic food is increasing tremendously.
5. Improving Soil Health: Some of the important features of organic agriculture in the context of soil health and environmental protection are given here:
a. In organic agriculture, the supply of nutrients is more balanced, which helps to keep plants healthy and soil biological activity is enhanced, which improves nutrient mobilization from organic matter and native soil reserves and minimizes the losses of nutrients, thus protecting the environment.
b. Organic agriculture technologies increase the organic matter content of the soil, which has a positive effect on soil aggregation and water-holding capacity.

Practices Followed During Organic Agriculture

1. Enrichment of Soil: Abandon the use of chemicals, use crop residue as mulch, use organic and biological fertilizers, adopt crop rotation and multiple cropping, avoid excessive tilling and keep the soil covered with a green cover or biological mulch.
2. Management of Temperature: Keep soil covered, plant trees and bushes on the bund.
3. Conservation of Soil and Rainwater: Dig percolation tanks, maintain contour bunds in sloppy land and adopt contour row cultivation, dig farm ponds, maintain low height plantation on bunds.
4. Harvesting of Sun Energy: Maintain green stands throughout the year through a combination of different crops and plantation schedules.
5. Self-reliance in inputs: Develop your own seed, on-farm production of compost, vermicompost, vermiwash, liquid manures and botanical extracts.
6. Maintenance of life forms: Develop habitat for the sustenance of life forms, never use pesticides and create enough diversity.
7. Integration of Animals: Animals are important components of organic management and not only provide animal products but also provide enough dung and urine for use in soil.
8. Use of Renewable Energy: Use solar energy, bio-gas and bullock driven pumps, generators and other machines.

Steps Involved in Developing Organic Farm

As organic management is an integrated approach, manipulation and adoption of one or a few steps may not yield significant results. For optimization of productivity, all the essential components need to be developed in a systematic manner. These steps include:
1. Habitat development.
2. On-farm facilities for input production.
3. Cropping sequence and combination planning.
4. \(3-4\) year rotation plan.
5. Growing of crops sunting to the region, soil and climate.

Methods of Organic Agriculture Based on Few Principles

Organic agriculture has adopted four basic principles and broadly speaking, any system using the methods of organic agriculture and being based on few principles may be classified as organic agriculture:
1. The Principle of Health: Organic agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human and planet as one and indivisible.
2. The Principle of Ecology: Organic agriculture should be based on living ecological systems and cycles, work with them, emulate them and help sustain them.
3. The Principle of Fairness: Organic agriculture should build on relationships that ensure fairness with regard to the common environment and life opportunities.
4. The Principle of Care: Organic agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well being of current and future generations and the environment.

What are the Benefits of Organic Agriculture?

1. No chemical fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides and synthetic chemicals are used.
2. Organic food contains enough vitamins, proteins and minerals along with other nutrients.
3. Organically grown food is from contamination with health-harming chemicals.
4. Increases soil nourishment by increasing soil organic matter.
5. Organic agriculture also helps in the sequestration of more carbon than regular conventional farming.
6. Lower production cost.
7. Organic agriculture reduces energy requirements for production systems.
8. Promotes environment-friendly practices like reduce, reuse and recycle.
9. It provides employment to labour in rural areas.

Disadvantages of Organic Agriculture

1. Less agricultural yield than conventional farming.
2. More labours are required for many biological, cultural and mechanical practices.
3. One person should have more knowledge of all components of organic agriculture and great observation skills.
4. Practices and techniques are time-consuming.
5. Poor establishment and widespread.

Summary

The world demand for organic products is growing rapidly in developed countries like Europe, the USA, Japan and Australia. The organic agriculture export market is one of the major drivers of organic agriculture in India. India exports \(31\) organic products. Organic systems are complex, but the products extracted through the method of organic farming are healthy, tasty and from contaminations of pesticides. Organic farming holds the great promise to solve some of the environmental and social problems caused by conventional agriculture. To play this role at the global level, farmers need access to essential knowledge on efficient ways, sustainable means and support structures that encourage organic practices and incentives to adopt them.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Organic Agriculture

Q.1. What are the advantages of organic agriculture?
Ans: a. No chemical fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides and no synthetic chemicals are used.
b. Organic food contains enough vitamins, proteins and minerals along with other nutrients.
c. Organically grown food is from contamination with health-harming chemicals.
d. Increases soil nourishment by increasing soil organic matter.
e. Organic agriculture also helps in the sequestration of more carbon than regular conventional farming.

Q.2. What are the disadvantages of organic agriculture?
Ans: a. Less agricultural yield than conventional farming.
b. More labours are required for many biological, cultural and mechanical practices.
c. One person should have more knowledge of all components of organic agriculture and great observation skills.
d. Practices and techniques are time-consuming.
e. Poor establishment and widespread.

Q.3. Name two types of organic agriculture.
Ans: The two types of organic agriculture are:
a. Pure Organic Agriculture
b. Integrated Organic Agriculture

Q.4. What is organic agriculture?
Ans: Organic agriculture is a kind of diversified agriculture wherein crops and livestock are managed through the use of integrated technologies with a preference to depend on resources available either at the farm or locally.

Q.5. Which theory explains the four principles of organic agriculture?
Ans: Lady Eve Balfour’s concept explains the four principles of organic agriculture.

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